“While you were away, I spoke to the abbot. He asked if I had proof.”
“Well, now we do. I will see the abbot next. Will you come with me?”
He nodded, voiceless.
They went to the abbot and laid before him the messages referring to “our friend at the abbey.”
The abbot sighed deeply. Lying was foreign to him. Subterfuge was foreign to him. He felt deeply troubled. “I have been a foolish old man, haven’t I?”
Precious Wind said, “No, sir, you have been trusting.”
“Things have been happening I should have known about, but I didn’t. Things happening to my brothers and sisters, without my knowledge. Wordswell has been telling me. I find it so hard to believe.”
“I know. But we will solve that problem.”
The abbot sighed. “A message came, while you were away. It said Xulai had gone back to Woldsgard under the care of Prince Orez.” He took it from his pocket and showed it to her.
Precious Wind knew Xulai had promised her father she would get to Tingawa as soon as possible. She considered it very unlikely that the message was true. Trust Abasio to keep stirring the pot, she thought with mild amusement. “Has the prior seen the message?”
“No. The loft keeper brought it directly to me.”
“May I have it?”
“If it is wise,” he whispered. “You can do what needs doing better than I.”
She put the message in her pocket. “It is wise. I’ll take care of it. Don’t be troubled, Eldest. For your information only, I don’t believe she’s returned to Woldsgard. The message was sent by the man who rescued her. He did it to confuse matters and to help him keep her safe.”
“What does your embassy want to do about Xulai?”
Though she regretted the necessity for it, guile came easily to Precious Wind.
“I am to stay here for a short while, awaiting developments, and then, if there are none, I am to go south through Elsmere, to Merhaven. In the meantime, however, Wordswell and I, some of our people from Wold, and the good trustworthy people of the abbey will solve this dilemma. Do not speak of it to anyone except those Wordswell suggests. Let us work on it.”
The abbot gave her a pitiful look. “I thought, perhaps, I should confront our prior. Explain to him that what he is doing is wrong, contrary to our beliefs!”
Precious Wind put steel into her voice. “Abbot, if you do that, you condemn Xulai to death! The man sent murderers after me, murderers after her. If you say anything to him about it, you ensure that next time he will be successful!”
“Murderers . . .” He turned ashen.
“Read those messages again! That is what the ‘friend at the abbey’ was expected to do. Murder.”
Wordswell said, “Put it out of your mind, Eldest Brother. She is right. The prior doesn’t need to be told what he’s doing. He knows very well what he is doing and he relishes it. Do not risk other lives in an effort to save his conscience. He has none. You have not yet been foolish, only too trusting. Do not now be foolish!” He turned to Precious Wind. “Show the abbot the receipt, Precious Wind. Read it, sir. The prior claims no knowledge of it. You realize the abbey must make this amount good?”
“Some of it may be found,” said Precious Wind. “Let’s not worry about that just now.”
The abbot had tears in his eyes. He bowed his head. “I will say nothing. I will say nothing. You have my word.”
Precious Wind retreated to the library with Wordswell. “Keep an eye on him,” she said. “His kindness may kill us all.”
“Not if we can get him moving on something to distract him; not if we can wind it up quickly.”
“The men who came with us from Woldsgard move in the same circles as the men who were sent after me. They’re all horsemen, workingmen; they drink beer, they talk, things are said that our men from Woldsgard can hear and remember.” She was quiet for a moment, thinking. “The prior believes if the abbot dies, he, the prior, will succeed to the abbacy without any trouble at all. I must leave it to you to see that particular thing does not happen. I understand you will need to speak with dozens of people. Do it as quickly as possible.”
“We have already begun—the abbot and I—to sort out some of the more . . . apparent problems such as our troop movements. Other meetings are scheduled. What are you going to do with the message the abbot gave you?”
“See that it reaches the prior and that he thinks he has seen it first. To do that, I will need to talk to your birdman.”
Together they went to the bird loft. Precious Wind gave Abasio’s misleading message to Solo Winger, who scanned it rapidly.
“Yeah. So? I sor it when it come and I guv it to abbot.”
“We’d like you to pretend it just came today. Let the prior see it.”
He fixed them with clever eyes. “So tha’s the way of it, hah? That chap with the wagon, he’s puttin’ down a smell trail.”
“In the wrong direction,” said Precious Wind. “If you don’t mind misleading the prior.”
“Oh, tha’s one clever, clever fellow I woun’t mind misleadin’ right over a cliff. You know the abbey armor is comin’ back from Netherfields?”
“I didn’t know,” Precious Wind said.
“Abbot sent a bird. Came up here hisself to do it. Armor’s t’come home. Says there’s not enuff food an’ stuff for them at Netherfields.”
“I should have told you,” said Wordswell apologetically. “Even though we didn’t have what the abbot considered to be
